So after doing a TON of reading, I decided it was time to take action. Instead of waiting to get a fancy setup, I went ahead and tried doing a planted aquarium with a tank I already have and some plants I have lying around. The Eclipse 6 gallon aquarium I used does not have enough light to grow plants, but I positioned it near a window. It still won’t be receiving much light, but since I am not using CO2 or a lot of fertilizers, it shouldn’t be a problem. Everything will probably just grow slow.
I got the rocks and substrate from a local creek. It took a ton of washing to make the sand clear. Big Pain!
Here is the tank empty
With rocks, plants and sand
All filled up.
I will definitely post more as things progress